Bordering : Identity Processes between the National and Personal

'What is a border?' This book employs a multi-disciplinary approach to the cultural, geographical and historical existence of borders to answer this seemingly simple question. It explores the cultural, historic and political processes that have shaped our world by dividing us from others by borders.

What is a border? This seemingly simple question is here answered via a multidisciplinary study of the cultural, geographic and historic existence of borders, and the ways that they have shaped our world. Using the Danish-Swedish border to illustrate the actions of groups and individuals engaged in bordering since the 1600s, this richly theoretical discussion highlights the complexities of political and cultural identity processes. Comparative perspectives are brought together to produce a thoughtful analysis of how such processes function, and of how borders work on both an imagined nationhood and experiential personal level. The author also examines how throughout history people have lived with and influenced or been influenced by borders, why some borders remain uncontested while others repeatedly provoke cross-border conflicts, and how today''s bordering processes may be deliberately manipulated.